Saturday, December 31, 2011

Sherlock Holmes A Game of ThronesToo be honest I don't really have a lot to say about this. That's not to say it was bad or that I regret seeing it, because I enjoyed it and I thought it was fun. I wish Rachael McAdams had been in it more, but besides that I don't have any real complaints. I don't think you'd be disappointed if you say this, because it is a fun and well done movie, just nothing really to get excited about. Unless you're dying to see a movie in the theater and there's no other options you might want to wait on this.

Mission Impossible Ghost ProtocolSee my review above? You can pretty much take it and apply it to this. Another fun movie, but again nothing special. Tom Cruise was good in the movie, and I was surprised at parts considering the preview mislead me a bit. But again, another movie that could probably wait to be seen.

Friday, December 30, 2011

I'm taking a break today from posting about our trip to Walt Disney World, although I will be continuing next year (aka next week!) to participate in Kelly's Korner's Show us Your Life.

The theme for today is wedding planning, which is convenient for me since I'm currently trying to plan our wedding for next September. If you go through my past post you'll probably notice that quite a bit of my inspiration comes from weddingbee. No surprise really, since I'm a bit obsessed with the site. So I thought for my post it would be fun to share some of my favorite weddingbee weddings.

My favorite types of weddings fall into two main categories. The first are weddings so opposite of what I have planned, that they're just fun to gush over. I don't see my wedding looking anything like these ones, which is most of the reason why they're so fun to gush over.

First is Mrs. Cherry Pie with her middle of nowhere Montana wedding. Isn't the view from the ceremony just absolutely amazing? Here wedding just reminds me of going camping growing up, and I think there would just be something almost magical about a wedding in the mountains.

Mrs. Sea Breeze and her destination wedding in Punta Cana, DR again looks breathtaking. Just how much fun would it be to spend the week of your wedding vacationing at some exotic location and lounging on the beach with your closest friends. Although I guess if I can't get married on a tropical island I'll just have to make it there some other way!

Then there's the exact opposite end of the spectrum with Mrs. Mary Jane's courthouse wedding. Again it's not something I see for myself, but I think reading about her wedding captured my attention so much because it was so seemingly unique.

It would only make sense that if some of my favorite weddings are the exact opposite of what I'm trying to achieve, the other half represent just what I'm going for. So hopefully I can meet those goals and have a wedding similar to one of the following!

Mrs. Ballet Flat is one of the few Louisiana weddingbee bloggers. I'm not completely sure how were going to be blending my California expectations of a wedding, with it actually in Louisiana, but I know we'll make it work. And I'd love to be able to incorporate some of the Louisiana traditions used by her.

Mrs. Hot Cocoa always called her wedding "chewish," as in Chinese-Jewish, which I think you can see perfectly in this shot of the ceremony with both the chuppah and Chinese lanterns. I love how well she was able to blend both her and his backgrounds and I'm hoping we can do something similar with my Jewish heritage and the boy's Catholicism. And you can't look at that photo withing thinking it's absolutely stunning.

There's no real gimmick to immediately describe Mrs. Cupcake's wedding, but I love it just the same. I love her color scheme, I love her paper goods, but I think most of all I just love the feel of her day. Her wedding seems to have just the amount of formality I'm going for, and more than that, it just seems like they and all their guests had SO MUCH FUN that day which I'm hoping will be the feeling at our upcoming wedding.

Are you favorite weddings to read about online the most or least similar to the your own? And if you're here from Kelly's Korner, thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

For our 5th day on the trip we headed back to the parks, this time to Animal Kingdom.

We started the day off with a Kilimanjaro Safari seeing hippos,

giraffes,

elephants,

and rhinos, as well as a bunch of other different animals.

From here I'll once again take the shortcut and list out the rides and shows that we managed to fit in.

It's Tough to be a BugFestival of the Lion King

DinosaurExpedition Everest-Legend of the Forbidden MountainFinding Nemo-The MusicalAnd of course, stopped to meet Pocahontas and Meeko.

By this time (around 2 or 3 I think) we had been on most of the rides we wanted to ride, so we headed back to the Magic Kingdom to meet Cinderella,

Belle,

and Sleeping Beauty again.

The plan was then to ride a few of the Fantasyland rides we missed, except the lines were all SO much longer than when we had been there before we only managed Snow White's Scary Adventures. But we did manage to catch a show at the castle on the way out of the park.

But we still weren't finished then, because that night back at our hotel we had reservations at Luau Cove for dinner and a luau.

For our first course they served us pineapple-coconut bread, pineapple, and a salad with a believe a mango dressing.

The main course was bbq ribs, rice, mixed vegetables, & bbq chicken.

And the night ended with a chocolate mousse volcano, with raspberry lava, and a pineapple sauce.

Did I mention it was all you can eat and drink? Let's just say no one went to bed with an empty stomach that night. I'll be back tomorrow with our very last day.

If you've ever been on a Disney World vacation did you only go to one park each day, or did you wind up hopping between multiple parks on a day?

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

As you've probably noticed I've been recapping our trip to Walt Disney World in Florida. Except how could you not be in Orlando, and not visit the new Harry Potter World, right? So for our 3rd day we rented a car and drove to Universal Studios to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the Islands of Adventure park.

We were able to quickly jump onto the Dragon Challenge which only had a 5 minute wait time. Except we weren't quite so lucky with Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. But the boy & I stuck in out, and waited the 90 minutes to ride. Once off, I made sure to pick up a glass of butterbeer and take the required photo.

Then picked up a chocolate frog at Honeydukes.

The rest of the park was nowhere near as crowded and again were able to quickly ride The Incredible Hulk Coaster, Doctor Doom's Fearfall, & The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. We ended the day back in Seuss Landing,

where we rode The Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish before heading home.

After running around parks for 3 days straight we decided to take it a little easy and started off with a character breakfast at the Yacht Club Resort.

Minnie, Donald, & Goofy joined us for breakfast, although I was busy filling my plate at the buffet with Goofy stopped by.

The rest of the day was spent shopping at Downtown Disney. I don't have too many pictures of this, so you'll have to make do with this one outside the lego store.

To end the day we went back to the hotel, where we picked up a sushi at the hotel.

Being that we were staying at the Polynesian, it was a Polynesian spin. It wasn't necessarily bad, just interesting. After all, when was the last time your California roll included pineapple?

Have you been to the new Harry Potter land yet? If not, do you plan on going? They are planing on building one in Southern California too, so I have a feeling the next time I visit Harry it won't be in Florida.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

For our second day of vacation we were off to Epcot. Since I grew up going to Disneyland, Magic Kingdom was much of the same to me, but Epcot was a completely new experience. The international showcase opened later than the actual park so the first half of the day was spent in Future World riding (or watching!) Living with the Land, Test Trek, Mission: SPACE, Journey Into Imagination With Figment, The Circle of Life, & Soarin'.

Then it was off to the World Showcase to travel the world! We met Pooh and Tigger in the UK,

and Princess Aurora in France.

I stopped for a quick photo in Morocco,

and picked up some limon gelato in Italy.

In Norway we were busy and rode the Maelstrom, met up with a troll,

and rendezvous-ed with a Norwegian Santa Claus.

Finally, in Mexico, we ran into Donald Duck.

By then it was time to head out, except on the way back to the hotel, we made a stop at the Magic Kingdom so we could watch the electrical light parade.

So that was our day at Epcot. Tomorrow though, you may be surprised with a slightly un-Disney Day.

And since we spent the day "traveling" at Epcot, if you could travel anywhere where we you go? (My choice again would be a tie, between Australia or Greece.)

Monday, December 26, 2011

As I mentioned last Friday, last week the boy and I were vacationing in Disney World with his family! After flying from New Orleans to Orlando, which was the boy's niece's & nephew's first plane on which they did surprisingly well,

we checked into our hotel room at the Polynesian resort, and left for dinner at Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club Resort where I had a roast beef sandwich

and split a fudge mud slide with the boy for dessert.

The following morning we were off to the Magic Kingdom, where we first ran over to Space Mountain and were greeted with only a 10 minute wait. Honestly, the day we chose to visit this park (Friday the 16th), was perfect because most rides didn't really have a wait. So to make things a little shorter here's a list of the rides I rode (what each person rode was a little different considering that we were with a 2-year-old who wasn't quite tall enough for all the "scary ride") and characters met.

Mad Tea Party (aka the teacups)Space Mountain (x2)

Chip & DaleWalt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger SpinJungle Cruise

StichPirates of the Caribbean (x2)

Tomorrowland SpeedwaySplash MountainIt's a Small World

With Alice

& the White RabbitBig Thunder Mountain Railroad (x2)

The Magic Carpets of AladdinHaunted Mansion

Minnie & Mickey

And maybe you noticed a little makeover in that last picture? Because yes, the boy's niece spent some time at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and came out transformed as Rapunzel!

I was originally planning on recapping both day 1 & 2 today, but it looks like this post has already been a little long. So you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to hear about Epcot. Until then, I hope you have a magical day!

And just for fun, what's your favorite ride at the Magical Kingdom? (I'd have to go with a tie between Space Mountain, Big Thunder, & Pirates.)